How severe is GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx?

GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx has a CVSS score of 5.6/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx?

GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx affects the following packages: @openzeppelin/contracts (npm), @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx?

Update @openzeppelin/contracts to 4.4.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @openzeppelin/contracts, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

Is GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx?

GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.2%, placing it in the 68th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx?

GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx is classified as CWE-665 (CWE-665). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx was published on December 14, 2021 and was last updated on July 16, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

📦

📦 npm

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

OpenZeppelin Contracts initializer reentrancy may lead to double initializationGHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx

MEDIUMFix: OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts#3006

GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.6) CWE-665 vulnerability in @openzeppelin/contracts. A fix is available for @openzeppelin/contracts — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asCVE-2021-46320 CVE-2022-39384 GHSA-88g8-f5mf-f5rj

Published

Dec 14, 2021

Updated

Jul 16, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Oct 10, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs68th percentile — riskier than 68% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

2 pkgs affected

How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.

4Kother npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

@openzeppelin/contractsnpm

936Kdownloads / week

Description

Impact

Initializer functions that are invoked separate from contract creation (the most prominent example being minimal proxies) may be reentered if they make an untrusted non-view external call.

Once an initializer has finished running it can never be re-executed. However, an exception put in place to support multiple inheritance made reentrancy possible in the scenario described above, breaking the expectation that there is a single execution.

Note that upgradeable proxies are commonly initialized together with contract creation, where reentrancy is not feasible, so the impact of this issue is believed to be minor.

Patches

A fix is included in the version v4.4.1 of @openzeppelin/contracts and @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable.

Workarounds

Avoid untrusted external calls during initialization.

References

https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts/pull/3006

Credits

This issue was identified and reported by @chaitinblockchain through our bug bounty on Immunefi.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, or need assistance executing the mitigation, email us at [email protected].

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`@openzeppelin/contracts`	≥ 3.2.0&&< 4.4.1	4.4.1`npm install @openzeppelin/contracts@4.4.1`
📦npm	`@openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable`	≥ 3.2.0&&< 4.4.1	4.4.1`npm install @openzeppelin/contracts-upgradeable@4.4.1`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

openzeppelinopenzeppelin

≥ 3.2.0 && ≤ 4.4.0

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @openzeppelin/contracts, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @openzeppelin/contracts to 4.4.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-9c22-pwxw-p6hx is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact Initializer functions that are invoked separate from contract creation (the most prominent example being minimal proxies) may be reentered if they make an untrusted non-view external call. Once an initializer has finished running it can never be re-executed. However, an exception put in place to support multiple inheritance made reentrancy possible in the scenario described above, breaking the expectation that there is a single execution. Note that upgradeable proxies are commonly initialized together with contract creation, where reentrancy is not feasible, so the impact of this